Villa Planchart a Caracas. Conservazione e de-costruzione del mito

Villa Planchart was designed by Gio Ponti and built between 1953 and 1957 on the San Roman hill in Caracas. It is a special “anomaly”: an architecture built by letter, by telephone, by telegram. The Villa is still considerably intact, but today it is undeniably at risk because of the Venezuelan political situation, a contingence that is poignantly representative of many other risks that heritage faces throughout the world. In December 2019, Iuav University of Venice started the research project “Heritage in danger. Conservation Plans between protection and emergency in Villa Planchart case” with DOCOMOMO Venezuela, Planchart Foundation and DOCOMOMO International ISC E+T. Its aim is primarily to provide a proper methodological approach to the knowledge of this architecture, to obtain an accurate understanding of the characteristics of its built reality and its elements of fragility. The paper presents a way of looking at heritage conservation belonging to the most recent evolution of preservation theories applied to modern heritage. The aim is the elaboration of a Conservation Plan used as a tool for managing risks and for planned conservation interventions, shifting the focus from a large, single restoration project to a long-term conservation and management program.